BUNTING SAYS TEASING FORCED WALK-ON CHANGE

STEPHEN BUNTING says he scrapped his old walk-on after constant teasing became too much for both him and his son.  

‘The Bullet’ had long used ‘Surfin’ Bird’ by The Trashmen, regularly breaking into the Peter Griffin “bird dance” from Family Guy as he came on stage.  

World No4 Bunting finally ditched the track after relentless demands to redo the cartoon routine became draining, and his eldest son Toby began facing teasing at school.  

Bunting switched to ‘Titanium’ by Sia, drawn to its empowering lyrics and the fact it is his boy’s favourite song.  

He told Standard Sport: “At the start, I enjoyed it.   

“A few years on, it started getting a bit monotonous and I was worried more about the walk-on than playing.  

“It was hard to keep up. Walking in the street, people would come up and say ‘Do the bird dance’. My son was getting asked the same thing in school.  

“I thought that I needed to get away from the Peter Griffin bird dance.  

“Titanium was my son’s favourite song. The ‘bullet-proof’ and ‘nothing to lose’ lines are really good for a player to listen to when you’re walking up to play a very important match.”  

St Helens thrower Bunting has enjoyed a brilliant campaign picking up SIX titles and threatening to ruffle the big three of Michael van Gerwen, Luke Humphries and Luke Littler.  

Bunting is looking to add a maiden PDC World Championship crown to his growing trophy cabinet when he takes on Poland’s Sebastian Bialecki in round one.  

Former Masters champ Bunting believes he has the ability to become the best player on the planet.  

He added: “People are talking about, obviously, I’m world No 4 and there are people chasing me.   

“But I’m not looking behind, I’m looking ahead. I know I’m not far behind No 3 in the world.  

“Winning the worlds is a big part to becoming number one.   

“So, that’s my dream, to become number one one day. Everyone will look up to me then but we’ll see what happens.”

Image by Taylor Lanning.